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Productions

Still Building

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After two highly successful runs in Singapore and Cairo last year, The Necessary Sage presents Still Building at The Substation.

Still Building was voted by BiGO Magazine last year as "Best Offering" among the 13 plays staged for Theatre Carnival on the Hill [April 1992]. It was later selected by the National Arts Council to represent Singapore at the Cairon International Experimental Theatre Festival [September 1992].

In Still Building, two stories are juxtaposed in one play. The first is about two sisters, Kim and Cheng, and their good friend, Alan. Cheng, the younger of the two, cannot cope with the memories their house represents for her, and decides to move out. Alan, who is adopted, receives a letter from a couple in Manila claiming to be his real parents and decides to go there. Kim, who believes in stability and not rocking the boat, finds difficulty coping with Cheng and Alan's decisions. In the second story, three people [played by the same actors] are trapped when the building they are in collapses. Inspired by the Hotel New World collapse, this story shows the trauma of three people stuck in a mass of rubble, waiting to be rescued.

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1993

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Singapore

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Off Centre

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Off Centre traces the friendship of two ex-mental patients, Saloma and Vinod, and the problems and hurdles they have to overcome, including social stigmas, prejudices and personal conflicts. the play uses effective techniques of flashbacks; moving the character in and out of their schizophrenic and normal selves to elicit their rational and emotional experiences.

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1993

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Singapore

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Festivals

M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2017

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2017

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Singapore

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Productions

Let's Walk

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Take a walk with Amanda Heng.

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2000

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Singapore

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Productions

Best Of

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Award-winning actress Siti Khalijah Zainal takes centre-stage in this brand new one-woman show specially created for her by Alvin Tan and Haresh Sharma. Best Of looks at issues of the day through collective stories and personal reflection.

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2013

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Singapore

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Productions

God

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"Nothing…Just nothing.." - Woody Allen

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1986

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Singapore

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Productions

untitled women number one

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How do we exorcise the pain of loss? The Necessary Stage revisits 2 early works from its repertoire to explore the ways we deal with loss and how we rise above it.

In untitled women number one, two women talk about their relationships, their past and future. Featuring Edith Podesta and Ethel Yap, the play looks at the notions of pain, death and interdependence, drawing from stories about gender, sexuality and womanhood.

untitled cow number one is about the journey of a widowed cow through 12 days of mourning. Performed by Sharda Harrison and Bani Haykal, the play is influenced by Hindu and Buddhist texts, images and myths, and incorporates physical movement and soundscape.

Both plays have toured successfully to the Macau International Fringe Festival (2000), the Asian Theatre Festival in Busan (2002) and the National Theatre Festival in New Delhi (2003).

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2015

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Singapore

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Productions

Frozen Angels

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As the world advances its research on life sciences, stem cells and artificial intelligence, what impact is there on human life and relationships? What does the future hold? Can life be built from scratch? Directed by Alvin Tan, written by Haresh Sharma and first staged during the National University of Singapore Arts Festival in March 2008, Frozen Angels is a thought-provoking performance exploring current issues of science using digital media and theatrical performance.

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2009

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Singapore

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Productions

Drip

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What makes a marriage? The fully-furnished HDB flat, the mutual secret keeping, the mother-in-law? Azam and Xiaoyan have to confront their differences when Azam's mother and sister make a surprise visit at home. Clashes of culture, religion and gender lurk within the still waters of everyday life and threaten to undo familial ties. Heartbreaking and humorous in turns, Drip is an unflinching look at the sacrifices—big and small—that we make to be at peace with one another and with ourselves.

Drip was first conceived in July and August 2016 as part of a playwriting masterclass led by Huzir Sulaiman, Joint Artistic Director of Checkpoint Theatre. It was written over six weeks under the guidance of Huzir, with the help of classmates Kimberly Arriola, Joses Ho, Debbie Ng, Dora Tan, Jo Tan and Nanda Yadav.

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10 Aug 2017

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Productions

Whale Fall

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Two best friends and fellow actors perform the first scene of a play and decide to change it. As fiction and truth become interwoven, they share stories, secrets and sweets. A meditative play about the things you lose and the things you search for in life, Whale Fall explores the redemptive power of art and friendship.

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10 Aug 2017

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Productions

Being Haresh Sharma

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Being in Singapore
Being a model citizen in Singapore
Being a dementia patient in Singapore
Being censored in Singapore
Being a political detainee in Singapore
Being off centre in Singapore
Being Malay in Singapore
Being a teacher in Singapore
Being an Indonesian Maid in Singapore
Being in a hospice in Singapore
Being fundamentally happy in Singapore
Being a Chinese MP in Singapore
Being a young person in Singapore
Being a suicide victim in Singapore
Being an artist in Singapore

Over three decades, The Necessary Stage and actors-collaborators who have been partners in the making of the company’s devised plays have revealed to us over and over again—in profound, heartbreaking and funny ways—what it means to ‘be’ in Singapore.

Away from the buzz of the rehearsal room and in the alone space where a playwright for a time dwells, Haresh Sharma forms up direct, powerful, honest, smart, funny words that enable these characters to speak into the very soul of our city.

Being Haresh Sharma is a work that looks at Haresh’s body of writing over 30 years. It makes bold, unexpected links and associations, mapping stories and characters in ways that surface the social, political and spiritual aspects of life here; bringing it all together with unexpected and exciting performance energy, sparking new ways of looking at his words and of experiencing performance and theatre.

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29 Jun 2017

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Workshops

The Orange Playground Lab #1

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The workshop focuses on different themes pertaining to the future. Members discussed the effects of surveillance capitalism, biometrics and how freely we share information in the public domain via social media and being constantly plugged to technology.

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Essays/Writings

Theatre in the Age of Authoritarianism

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Published here on Medium.com.

Project Serial Number: AA201702

Due to copyright restrictions, we are unable to reproduce the full essay/writing online. Please contact the resource owner directly for permissions if reproduction rights do not belong to The Necessary Stage Ltd. Otherwise, kindly contact us for access to the full resource. Do note that archival access and reproduction charges may apply.

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Productions

Don't Know, Don't Care

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Commissioned by HCA Hospice Care, Don't Know, Don't Care looks at a family trying to deal with terminal illness within the household. Wrapped up in their own lives, the family members 'don't want to know'. They prefer to leave the care-giving to strangers.

Soon, they realise they have to know; they learn how to care. They discover the importance of being there for one another. At a time of illness, they can finally share a bond and experience joy.

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Don't Forget to Remember Me

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When Madam Wong begins her retirement, all she can think of is enjoying her golden years with rest and serenity, surrounded by family and friends. However, rest turns into restlessness as she starts to lose her short-term memory. Her dream of a peaceful life soon becomes a nightmare of remembering and forgetting.

Commissioned by the Alzheimer’s Diseases Association, Don’t Forget to Remember Me is a touching and thought-provoking play that deals with the trials and tribulations of people suffering from Dementia and their struggles to come to terms with their illnesses.

In Singapore, about 5 percent of people above 65 suffer from Dementia. It is an illness which causes brain cells to die at a faster rate than normal. This leads to failing memory, deterioration of intellectual function and personality changes.

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Productions

Those Who Can't, Teach

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The Necessary Stage celebrates its 30th anniversary with the return of Those Who Can’t, Teach!

First staged in 1990 and subsequently in 2010 to full houses at the Singapore Arts Festival, Those Who Can’t, Teach is a Singaporean theatre classic by Cultural Medallion winners Alvin Tan and Haresh Sharma.

Set in a secondary school, the play looks at the madcap lives of teachers and students—with often hilarious results. As the teachers struggle daily to 'nurture and groom', the students prefer to hang out and chill. In the meantime, they all have to deal with the dreaded 'parents'.

With upskirting and texting, teaching and politicking, school has never been the same. Join the rambunctious cast of characters as they struggle to prove that Those Who CAN, Teach.

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09 Mar 2017

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Productions

Actor, Forty

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In real life, there are no rehearsals and no second takes.

Actor, Forty features Golden Horse Award-winner Yeo Yann Yann returning to the Chinese theatre stage in a special Huayi commission.

This new original monologue sees Yeo collaborating with Cultural Medallion recipients, director Alvin Tan and playwright Haresh Sharma of The Necessary Stage. Candid and conversational, it examines the myriad identities that we take on and cast off in life—just as an actor does when she adopts different roles.

Blurring the lines between actor and character, Yeo plays an actress who has just been cast in a contemporary remake of Summer Snow《女人四十》, a 1995 Hong Kong film about a 40-something woman dealing with difficult family issues. The actress has a secret that she is struggling to keep under wraps—she is turning 40 and expecting her first child. Faced with the challenge of juggling a globetrotting job and raising a child, she confronts her hopes and fears. Will she still be able to find meaning in her career, and also play to perfection what could be her most challenging role yet—becoming a mother?

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Festivals

M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2017

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Workshops

Devising and Performance Workshop

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Come November, The Necessary Stage is pleased to have Alan Lyddiard, Artistic Director of The Performance Ensemble (UK) assisted by Singaporean writer Chng Suan Tze, to conduct a workshop on devising and performance.

The five-day workshop explores the idea that we all have stories to tell and that other people’s personal stories are important for us to hear. Not just grand stories, but small, seemingly insignificant stories that can become meaningful and teach us something about ourselves and the world we live in.

Over five evenings, we will discover stories hidden in our hearts that deserve to be told, and we will discover ways of telling them that will touch the hearts of our audiences. We will create authentic theatre through story-telling, movement, music and visual imagery.

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Productions

Best Of (His Story)

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In 2013, award-winning actress Siti Khalijah Zainal brought The Necessary Stage's Best Of to life, playing the role of a young Malay Muslim woman going through divorce.

Now, accomplished TV and stage actor Sani Hussin takes the stage as the husband to share his side of the story in Best Of (His Story), written by Haresh Sharma and directed by Alvin Tan.

What happens when the estranged couple reunite at the Syariah court? What does he say to a wife seeking divorce? What can he say?

How would this change his view of what “home” means?

Just as his wife had shared her day with the audience, he offers us a glimpse into a day in his life, his past, his dreams... and his beliefs.

He too is not a stereotype. But after today, he may well be a statistic.